Duo's Rat: Concert
by PinkWhirlWind
Summary: Part of the Duo's Rat Series, Heero and Duo go to a concert
1. Default Chapter

Duo's Rat: Concert

By Nix Winter

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Alas.

Note: This story is still part of the Duo's Rat series. I have the next couple days off and intend to write lots of therapeutic fan fic! A friend of mine entered The Trap into a fan fic contest at the con I just got back from and I'm told it won 'best drama'.

One

The bruising had disappeared from Duos face. The division in Heero was anything other than faded. Relena had taken them both in hand, giving them adjoining apartments in her palace. She kept the reporters away from them, even as she painted them as the greatest heroes since Nelson Mandela.

Heero still hadn't forgiven her for planning Duo's funeral, but Kyo liked her. Once she'd caught Heero giving Duo secret 'kitten eyes' and she'd asked him if she should tell the world that Duo was a girl. Heero was still angry over that too, though Kyo didn't understand why. To Kyo it didn't make any difference, but Duo did kind of look like a girl. He didn't smell like a girl though. He smelled a little like hydraulic fluid, a little like strawberries, and something else sweet that Heero assured Kyo was only found near Duo.

Relena smelled more like a girl, flowers and lilac lingering to her fine linen suits. But she'd given them tickets to see Squall. Heero argued that this was not a good time for them to attend a rock concert. Squall was a Japanese group playing for the Peace Celebration. The world celebrated, and that in itself had come so quickly that Heero didn't trust it nor truly understand it. The world just wasn't going to make sense again until Duo spoke out loud that it made sense.

The tickets had been left with them, anyway. When Heero had seen Duo fingering the tickets, that's when their fate was sealed. They were going to a concert. Duo's smiles had slipped away like his voice. Oh there were those smiles that he gave when someone was looking, many smiles for other people's comfort, but Heero watched him, covertly, overtly, all the time. When the corner of Duo's mouth had lifted, lip between his teeth, when he thought no one watched him, Heero would have become a rock star to bring that smile into full bloom.

They were going to be mobbed, Heero was sure. Scenes of raving fan girls screaming Duo's name danced around in Heero's mind. Duo was the most beautiful human in the Earth Sphere and his face had been everywhere as a hero of the peace. Videogame artists would be throwing themselves at Duo's feet. Duo would be taken up on stage and he'd smile and dance with the beautiful singer girl of Squall. Heero chewed the inside of his cheek. Kyo threw the image of Duo in a green velvet princess dress up into their shared mental space and Heero threw the mental brakes on. The images were nothing more than a daymare, no more value than dreams brought on by food poisoning.

Duo's fingers touching Heero's knee lightly sent the daymares back where all dark thoughts should stay, brought Heero's mind back to the car. Trowa's eyes wandered from the road, checking on them both, for just a second. He was the most comfortable with Duo's silence, Heero thought. It was as if they could communicate still, as if they were still connected. Sitting right next to Duo in the car, he could still feel the hole in his life, a hole filled with a gnawing loneliness.

Emotions had never been a problem for Heero before. For Kyo, sure, but that was Kyo's job, to guard the soul. For Heero, the mission programming had always given him authority to disassociate from his emotions. That programming was deeply auditory. Nothing written, when it could not be backed up with Duo's voice, could trigger a mission in Heero. This left him stranded, running on Duo's last mission directive… to do what he thought was right. It was hard to know what was right, what wasn't, and nothing could hold back the growing little fears.

His fears were in full force when they arrived at the theater. So many people, so many cars, no visible security or order to the way the people moved, no objective to achieve, and the situation made alarms scream for Heero. There could be assassins who didn't want peace, who could try to hurt Duo, or competing sides who might try to take him from Relena's control.

Inside, Heero and Kyo made rapid swaps to deal with the overwhelming emotion and conflicting desires. Kyo now wanted to go to the concert. Quatre had told him that it was alright to scream and dance and jump and yell as loud as he could while at the concert and Kyo wanted that very much. Heero wasn't sure that he wouldn't be better off if he didn't just strangle his internal self.

Duo took hold of his hand, and suddenly both of Heero and Kyo were aligned, both together, both looking at Duo from a mixed mind, an older emotional Heero-Kyo. Duo turned his hand over and wrote, "Do you want to go home?"

Heero-Kyo shook his head. Duo's face was so pale, but so perfect without the dark bruising that had been around his face. Strands of dark brown hair were pulled free from his braid and framed his face. They glittered with some kind of gel. Glitter also painted light around Duo's amethyst eyes. Heero's heart beat quicker, but not with fear.

Duo's shirt was tight, shiny black with a matte skull pressed on it. The shirt was tight enough to show the tight curves of Duo's chest and Heero's breath caught in his throat. Duo was definitely not a girl. Kyo's confusion about why that mattered got pushed down even as Heero's cheeks turned pink. As Duo sat there blinking, Heero jumped out of the now parked car and held the door, eyes moving from Duo, to the ground, back to Duo.

Trowa smirked. Duo rolled his eyes and that communication thing between those two flashed back and forth so that Heero felt another new feeling, like something aggressive that made him want to punch Trowa. Kyo swore that wasn't his feeling. He didn't want to hit the penguin man.

A rush of scent, a little spicy, a little exotic flowed with Duo and all of a sudden Heero realized that Duo's hair was down, not braided. Duo had been waiting in the car when Heero had gotten there, and lush brown flowed around him as he stood, tarnished moonlight around the black leather painted to Duo's body, and then it was Heero holding his lip between his teeth.

He wished he knew what he was supposed to do! In his mind he had programmed behaviors for sexuality and seduction, for friendship, for most situations, but he couldn't call any of those. Those required a mission objective, so he stood there, cheeks burning, and didn't even see Duo's hand coming. Slender, caloused fingers caressed his cheek and he didn't know what he should do, only that he was doing what he was. "Are you happy to be here? You look very nice, Mr. Maxwell."

The smirk was pure Duo, suggesting wicked pranks, suggested a playfulness that had always grated on Heero's nerves, but now he knew why. Duo took risks he didn't need to, put himself at risk, and then, the hand against his cheek was a risk in a way. Heero smiled, let the past go for the moment, and found himself looking down at the ground. A dark voice whispered in his mind that the distance between Duo and him was just too far. Without Duo's voice, there could be no connection, and nothing but growing solitude and loss.

The car's locks clicked shut, and Heero put on a good face for Duo, smiling even. Maybe Duo would meet someone here who could make him smile.

Duo leaned forward, hair falling around him, nearly touching the ground. He grinned and it was almost like old times. Heero couldn't read the emotion in Duo's eyes though, couldn't read the expression on his face.

'Heero's too slow. I know what's going on. Duo likes Trowa,' Kyo thought, confused about why that should make Heero's feet heavier to pick up.


	2. two

Duo's Rat: Concert 2

By: Nix Winter

Disclaimer: I still don't own Gundam Wing, and if I did, I'd probably have an editor and a deadline, and it wouldn't be nearly as much fun! Though the royalty checks might be fun.

Notes: My editing problems are finished! My editor has turned out to be highly cool, after really getting to talk to her! She's doing a poll though on whether there should always be a Happily Ever After, so if you're inclined, you can leave her your comments on HEA and on yaoi. She's a senior editor at a company that is publishing yaoi, and all that. So leave her comments on yaoi too. The company publishes like.. erotica, so the kind of thing one has to be 18th to buy at a con, you know?

The rest of this at: under the username pinkwhirlwind 

**Oh… and if you'd like to hang out in a place with other 1x2 fans, chatting, making friends, finding rp partners, things like that, NO flaming, no being mean, ne? Come here:**

groups. yahoo. com/group/1x2chat/ 

Two

Duo's pov

_Heero's so quiet. He has been since I got out of the hospital. I so don't understand what the hell is up with him. And the looks he and Quatre throw each other. It's like they've got some kind of secret. I like Qat a lot, don't get me wrong. He's a real great guy. And I know that Trowa's got a thing for him. Trowa and I have been plotting how to get them together since way back before that dumb ass mission that turned out to bring world peace. Tell me how that happened? I really want to know. It's not like the idea of that any Heeroes is that scary. At least not to me._

There was a line to get into the concert. It wound around parking lot like some kind of peace dragon. Trowa shoved his hands into his pockets, and settled into line like it was just part of the experience. Duo had Heero's hand still, fingers laced together as he sort of tucked himself and Heero into the line behind Trowa. An older energy was back, rocking Duo onto the balls of his feet and back, hair swaying around him. That long hair gave stealth mode to their clasped hands.

They were nearly the same height, standing so close that their shoulders touched. Heero hadn't really dressed up for this, just his jeans and a button up shirt, but standing so close to Duo, some of the glitter was rubbing off on him.

_There's something in his eyes, such beautiful blue eyes. He's got so much emotion in those eyes. Something is really up with him, really. So we're standing in line, right, and he's Heero, all chilly and proper, and then he's looking at me with wide eyes, some kind of playful innocence sparkling and it makes my hair stand on end, because… well.. this isn't Heero. And then I realize he's looking at my glitter, wanting my glitter. It's not like I didn't OFFER when we were at home. _

_Heero Yuy doesn't do glitter. This Heero does, I guess._

Duo wiped the ball of his thumb over his eye lid, catching up glittery make-up, which he then wiped off just below one of Heero's eyebrows. _He's going to kill me._

Heero's eyes were wide though, so blue, and for just a moment, Duo was sure he could see the little boy that Heero must have been once, just some little blue eyed monster kid with great dreams. Duo's thumb lingered there at the side of Heero's face. It hurt, so badly, the need to 'say' something, anything, just to be able snort and hiss at Heero, but hours of effort locked in his room had proved all that did was give him a headache.

Relena's doctors, and Qat's too, had said just to wait, to give it time. There wasn't any obvious brain damage, but they also said that even with how much science new, it didn't know everything. They didn't tell him anything he couldn't have figured out on his own, but they sure did say it in fancy words. Sort of like some form of amnesia, trauma induced selective skill occultation. He was a dumbass, was what it all boiled down too, and he was too afraid to talk, because of what that might do to Heero. That made all kinds of great sense. Yeah.

Except he couldn't so much as make a noisy sneeze even when he was alone. It was more than just about Heero. Some of it was what they'd made him relive with that damn machine of theirs. They'd made him be a child again, skinny, underfed, with ratty hair, hiding in an alley, trying to be so quiet so, trying not to be found. It hadn't worked.

As he'd healed from that attack, in some dark cold place that the memory didn't explain exactly where he'd been after, he'd made up his mind that he'd never be quiet again. He'd shout and scream and kick and the world could fuck itself. He was not going to hide like that again. Except their captors had made him relive it again, again, again, and part of him was stuck in that ally, a tiny shaking boy with silently crying violet eyes that didn't want to accept that violation would happen.

Heero's arm tightened around him and Duo found himself sort of huddled close to the real hero of the world. They were in line now, Trowa watching the sun set on the other side of the parking lot. He was shaking, small tight vibrating shivers, but Heero held him close, their eyes locked together. This was no child Heero, but the man he'd known and come to trust.

"Duo," Heero's gentle, determined voice whispered, "I will never let anyone hurt you again."

That would be such a sweet thing to believe, and Duo wanted to. He knew how hurt Heero was himself though, how lost, and how changed by this his friend had become, and he also knew that Heero hadn't offered or initiated anything really since they'd gotten out of the hospital.

If Heero could do, so could he! He just needed to try harder. Duo closed his eyes, tried to feel just one work, maybe two, to feel how they'd form in his throat. His mouth opened for silence, lips twisting in a harsh parody of words he needed to say. And then the pain, ever reliable hit and whited out his vision. Only Heero's hands on his elbows kept him upright. Fingers really shaking now, he reached to Heero's cheek and wrote, "Thank you."

"Maybe we should go home," Trowa asked, towering over both of them a bit, blocking them from the rest of the people in the line by his presence. Trowa was a powerful man and very protective of his friend.

"No," Heero said, only to be backed up by a small shake of Duo's head. "We want to be here."

And so here they were.

The rest of the line passed in silence, a comfortable quiet as the future audience chatted and rambled about this group, about the peace, about whatever normal people talk about. It gave Duo time to pretend that's all he was.

The line swept them forward and once they were in, Trowa took his leave.

The rest of the way into the concert wasn't much to be talked about. Most notable was that Duo decided he didn't like lines. There hadn't been any sizable lines as an orphan. There hadn't been any lines in the sweepers. It was all first come first serve, and Duo was usually there before there as anything to be had. As a terrorist, it wasn't much different; all take what you want as soon as you could get your hands on it. They hadn't been civilians long enough to have had many lines to wait through.

And there was Heero's odd behavior. Duo didn't understand. He knew if he could find away to speak again, he could help Heero. Those were where his thoughts were when the lights dimmed then turned to flashing rainbows. Duo forgot to worry about Heero, forgot his own darkness as a single figure, music flowing around her, seemed to rise from the stage. Emotion seethed from her and Duo leaned forward, hands around the railing. They had box seats, and soon, Heero's hand touched his on the railing.

Guitarists, sporting huge black wings that reflected a rainbow of light as they descended to the stage, joined her, layering song and emotion. The back of the stage rose, lifting a violinist and a keyboardist. The violinist had long hair, flowing around him, dotted with sparkling gems. His face flashed over the screen now visible behind them, as his caressed the deepest heart wringing sorrow from his violin. His face was slender, heart shaped, full lips, a man, but so beautiful he could have become his music.

The singer lifted her hands, sheer black fabric falling back from arms. As the song ended, her entire body flickered and the rising applause flickered with it. She pushed her hood back, revealing flickering blond hair. Duo wondered if all singers were impossibly beautiful, or if maybe that was why she used a hologram for her stage presence.

"My name is Iliasa," she said, and her voice resonated through the auditorium, a sparkling clear soprano. "I am alive today the gundam with angel wings defended my colony. I sing with my own voice, though damage to my home colony left me unable to take the stage in person. This is our first live performance in nearly two years. If it were not for the Maxwell-Yuy Peace Accord no performance would be possible. Our violinist, Zax Morgan is also a hologram. He can only play some songs with us, because he was lost when a liner was destroyed. It is possible he floats in space somewhere, in a life pod. As this beautiful new peace unfolds for us, we wanted Zax with us, as he always believed there would be peace. Let us celebrate!"

The crowd screamed as the music sang to life again! Duo threw his arms around Heero, startling him. Dance music, fast and emotive, her voice that slipped under Duo's skin and made him feel alive, and it drove him, freed him so that he held Heero to him, pulling the stiff hero into a dance. It was just the two of them alone in the box, high above the audience below, awash in the music that wouldn't have even been if it hadn't been for them.

Slowly Heero's body began to move with Duo, hips swaying. Chest to chest, they had an excuse to dance, the music made the world outside have no hold on them. Duo's fingers found their way to Heero's hair, and the emptiness that had been there was warmed away with a tenderness that made Duo tingly inside.

Songs rose and fell like the tide, but they clung to each other, dancing, fingers lightly exploring the other's face, lips, as if only here, this would be the only time they could be so close.

"Duo," Heero whispered near Duo's ear. "I want to touch my lips to yours."

And then Duo was tired of waiting, tired of the things he couldn't say, and he pulled Heero's face closer. It was his first kiss, but he'd never been accused of being timid. Heero's lips were soft, relaxed, surprised maybe, as Duo brushed his own lips over them. He came back, the tip of his tongue brushing over those soft lips, tasting the life that was Heero. A soft whimper came from the perfect solider and Duo took that as a welcome. He pushed his tongue a little forward.

Heero sprang on him, crushing him to him, kissing him so deeply, as if he were searching for Duo's voice in the kiss. Not all communication is carried by the spoken word. Neither of them were singing solo anymore.


End file.
